WWV Time Station

Back in the last century, WWV and several stations like it (e.g. JJY in Japan, VNG in Australia) were important for delivery of accurate time standards to scientists, broadcasters - in fact anyone with a need for access to precise time. WWV can still be heard ticking away on 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz. But, according to the official WWV (US NIST)website, it seems they no longer do tours of the transmitter site, unless you're very very special. I am curious if they still serve "millions of listeners" these days. I used to set the digital clock on the shortwave radio using WWV, waiting for the announcement from Boulder just before the full minute. If conditions were right, you could here the female announcer on the sister station WWVH in Hawaii. Just checked a few moment's ago and they're still there. I remember a colleague at Radio Netherlands Worldwide did a series of interviews there for Media Network, as did the late Dave Rosenthal. It is great that Dave's fantastic pictures are still up on the web for us to enjoy.


Must be kinda boring to work at WWV though, programming is a bit repetitive and predictable, there are no frequency changes to break the monotony and it is actually you're job to watch the clock ;-)